If you rent your Amelia Island house on Airbnb or Vrbo, there is a tax you are responsible for that neither platform collects on your behalf. It catches a lot of owners, and it is worth ten minutes of your attention.
What the tax is
Nassau County levies a 5% tourist development tax on accommodations rented for six months or less. It applies to ZIP code 32034, which is Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach. On top of that sits Florida's 6% state sales tax and a 1% county discretionary surtax, so the total on a transient stay is 12%.
The part that catches people
The Nassau County Tax Collector states it plainly: the online platforms do not remit tourist tax to Nassau County, and the owner is responsible for collecting and remitting it. That is different from how it works in many Florida counties, where Airbnb has an agreement in place and handles it invisibly. Here, it does not.
So if you have been renting for a year and assuming the platform handled it, the liability has been accruing the whole time.
What you actually have to do
- Register with the Nassau County Tax Collector through their TouristExpress system.
- Collect the tax from your guests, on top of the nightly rate.
- File a return every month, even in a month with no bookings.
- Returns are due on the first of the following month and are delinquent after the 20th.
One more thing about Yulee
The 5% tourist development tax applies to ZIP 32034 only. A property in Yulee, 32097, sits outside the district. The state sales tax and county surtax still apply.
If you are behind
Talk to the Tax Collector's office before they talk to you. Voluntary disclosure is a very different conversation from an audit, and in our experience the office is reasonable with owners who come forward. We are not tax advisers, and if the amount involved is significant you want an accountant, not a blog post.
For the owners we manage, we handle registration and the monthly filing as part of full service. It is the least glamorous thing we do and one of the most useful.
Sources: Nassau County Tax Collector, Tourist Development Tax and the Florida Department of Revenue county rate table. Rates and deadlines change; confirm before you file.